Quarantined
by CJS-DEPPendent
Summary: After being infected by a deadly virus, the team is locked up in the lab with four other victims in a quarantine. Locked up together with no work to do, the team takes on investigating itself and finding out more about each member. GSR & CW. Please Review


**QUARANTINED**

Outside a small lab in the vicinity of Las Vegas but far enough in the desert to be unknown to the common civilian, only 4 people were spending the warm, yet gloomy night. As two prepared to settle in to their small 6ft by 12ft cubicles where nothing more than a bed could reside, the other two were engaged in a heated argument. Something common these days, thought the dark haired woman as she drifted off to sleep.

In the largest lab two people were fighting in the dark, the only source of light being the green-ish glow irradiating from the fume cupboard. The tallest man fell to the floor and struggled to get up as the shorter, stronger built man reached for something from within the cupboard. On his feet, the tall man started moving determinedly to his partner. However, moments before he reached his destination, the short man turned to face his victim, syringe in one hand, a mask over his nose and mouth. Without a second of thought, he emptied the content of the syringe into his partner's arm. In the pain, and the sudden realisation that he was going to die, Dr. Samuel Jacobs decided to use the last ounce of strength in him to stop his killer. But, his thin, weak constitution damaged by the years of constant darkness spent in the interior of labs had rendered him incapable against such a well-built adversary. Moments before he felt his systems shut down, one after the other in such pain that he could only pray for death; all he heard was the breaking of glass as the syringe flew from his partner's hand and landed on the fume cupboard. The sudden inexplicable surge of adrenalin, which he now knew was a result of knowing his death was imminent, had allowed him to force his attacker to drop his weapon and all he could see as his eyes closed further and further was the other man sprinting out of the lab holding the mask tightly to his face. Even in that last moment of excorticating pain and blinding hatred, Dr. Jacobs knew that the ramifications of the broken syringe and the spilt chemical were going to set the lab, the town and possibly the country in unthinkable fear. Especially with the flu going around.

-----

Gathered around Grissom's desk, Catherine, Warrick and Nick studied the form before them.

"Why would they wait two days to call us in?" Nick all but shouted closing the file and laying it down on the desk for Catherine to read.

"Government policy. They had to make sure there was nothing there they didn't want us to find." Answered Catherine without looking up from the file.

Warrick looked annoyed at the situation "We're criminalists. If there was a murder, it's our job to find things the killer doesn't want us too…"

Grissom nodded looking as peaceful as ever "I agree. If this were Ecklie I would probably ignore his rules and I'd have processed the scene sooner. But these are the big guys."

A woman's voice made them all look at the door. "Gil Grissom scared of 'the man'?! Never thought it possible."

Sara Sidle stood in the doorway holding her own copy of the case file against her body with her left hand and wiping her nose on a tissue with the other. Grissom let slip an involuntary smile.

"Nice of you to turn up" he said hiding his smiles as soon as he could manage it. Sara smiled back.

"What's wrong with you?" Greg entered the room unceremoniously and looked slightly disgusted at Sara.

"It's the flu…" She glared at him as he mimicked running away from her red nose.

"Well Sara, if you're ill, you can go home. We can handle this one without you." Sara felt slightly taken aback by Grissom's words but tried not to show it. Greg handed the boss a sheet of paper and walked back out covering his nose like a mock mask when he passed by Sara.

"I'm good. I've felt worse…believe me." She knew exactly which episode she was referring too and desperately hoped he was as clueless as he seemed.

Apparently, he was. Grissom just nodded, gathered the papers which were scattered around his normally impeccably neat desk. "Once more into the breach." Taking that as a cue to leave, the team filed out.

-----

Once everything was set to go, Nick Warrick and Catherine stepped into the black car packed with their most advanced instruments. It was like Nick had said while packing, _"If there's something they don't want us to know about, we definitely want to find it."_ As their car pulled out of the CSI parking lot and set course to the somewhat mythical lab which was almost unheard of in the typical civilian conversations Gil Grissom watched them leave alone by his car.

Watching them pull away, Grissom stood outside the passenger door of his own car waiting for Sara and Brass. He was used to waiting for people to do things that needed to be done. But today he was particularly annoyed at the wait, and he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with work. Checking his watch, he slipped on his sunglasses and turned to face the door to the CSI department. At any moment, Sara Sidle would walk out. He knew he wanted to just stand there and watch her, her hair sparkling in the scorching desert sun, her smile making him melt inside. But he knew he couldn't. This was work. Besides, only a week ago he'd decided it was time to get over her. And so far, he was failing miserably. He wasn't really aiming for anything in particular in getting over her. There were no overnight visits to Heather's planed in the near future, but at least he wanted to be free from the agony he felt every time Sara dropped in his office to say 'good night' and walked away..

Then, as if the Gods had been listening to his thoughts, the doors slid open and Sara walked out holding her investigation kit in one hand, passing the other through her bouncy hair. He decided to ignore the tingling feeling in his gut and simply walked over to the driver's side giving her no more than a 'you're late' look. He felt proud. That was more than he thought he'd achieve. He sat on the driver's seat, his hands on the steering wheel ready to drive off, Sara pulled into the seat next to him. Stubbornly, he forced his neck to stare straight ahead of him. He was not going to look at her. He was going to be professional. He was _not_ going to look at her, he would think of her, all the time, but he would not allow himself to look at her. He greeted Brass through the rear-view mirror and sped off to the crime scene.

Sara Sidle wasn't very good at bluff. She'd figured that out years ago whilst playing poker in college…it didn't never turn out very well on her end. But she thought she'd played it pretty well on this matter. As far as she could tell, not one of her fellow workers had any idea what she felt. Especially him. He was so oblivious. It was part of what made him charming to her. He always seemed to be somewhere else, deep in thought. It made him mysterious. But now, she was starting to get restless. For a week, she'd endured a very different approach from Grissom. The innocently flirtatious relationship they'd had for longer than the 5 years she'd worked in Las Vegas had been replaced by a cold, upsetting talk-only-if-absolutely-necessary relationship. What was up with him? She wasn't so much worried about what had caused this coldness from him as she was afraid it would last.

She'd never expected Grissom to feel the same for her as she did for him. After all, the subtle hints about his involvement with one _Lady_ Heather weren't as subtle as the hinters hoped. She knew she couldn't compete, but as she tried harder and harder to get over him, she found that she was getting drawn closer and closer. All the annoying facts of his personality that, if he were any other man, she could have used to persuade her heart to let him go, were the very facts that made it hold tighter.

She dared glance over at him. The muscle in his neck was still twitching as it had in the break room where he'd forced his neck to hold his head steady, not moving an inch away from the coffee filter he seemed so intent in studying. She knew he was avoiding her, maybe blocking her out.

Then it hit her. He wasn't doing this for him. He must have figured it out. _"How could I be so stupid?!"_ She thought wanting to hit herself _"He realised what I felt and is trying to push me away. Saving me from heart break"_ She cursed herself for thinking that his change of mood could have had anything to do with his positive feelings for her.

-----

About half an hour later, Grissom pulled the car to a stop and hopped out. Sara took a deep breath, lately she'd been doing that a lot whenever he left the room, or in this case, the car.

Her supervisor stood talking to the lab guard. Sara approached him, and like in all the other times they'd had to work together, she managed to forget her worries and focus solely on the case. It seemed he did too. His neck was no longer twitching and he looked at her several times while the guard told them exactly what had happened the night of Dr. Samuel Jacobs' death.

"So, you were on duty…?" Grissom asked.

"Like I told the uniforms over there." He motioned to two cops standing talking to brass "I started my shift at 21:15. I do that every day except Thursdays and Sundays."

"Alright, and who came in that night?" Sara asked.

"Just doctor Jacobs and his partner." The guard answered smiling in a flirty way at Sara.

If she hadn't been focused on the job, Sara would have sworn that Grissom's sudden twitch was an indication that he wasn't too happy with the smile rather then an attempt to swat a mosquito as he made it seem.

Grissom decided to proceed. "Okay. Do you keep a record of everyone that comes in and out?"

The guard nodded and reached in his booth to pull out a large logbook. He handed it to Grissom.

"You mind if we take a look?" Sara turned the pages of the book that Grissom was holding until she found the date desired.

The guard motioned with his hand for her to go ahead.

"Says here a Dr. Plummer signed in with Dr. Jacobs the night of his death." Grissom pointed to the entry in front of the hour 22:30.

"That's his partner, they were in the same car. They always go out for something to eat. They spend their days locked in that lab doing god-knows-what with their chemistry sets." He mumbled the last words so low that Sara had no idea what he was saying but Grissom who'd gotten pretty good at lip reading, understood every word.

"Geeks, huh." He looked at the stunned guard who could not believe he'd heard "Did anything happen that night that you might consider strange? Did Dr. Jacobs fight with anyone? His partner. You maybe."

"Me?" The guard looked surprised "Why would we fight?"

"I get the feeling you didn't really like him." Grissom said as Sara looked at him not understanding where all this subtle anger had come from. He'd been indirectly called a geek before. She'd done it several times, quite directly, actually.

"I always got along fine with Samuel."

Grissom nodded then looked back at the log book "There are two other people here."

"Yes…" The guard pointed over to where brass was talking to a dark haired woman in a lab coat, and a short, mouse hair coloured man in his thirties "Dr. Truman and Dr. Cain. They also work here."

Grissom nodded "Well, thank you, if we need more information we'll come back."

The guard nodded. Grissom realised he was still holding the log book "Um…may I take this with me, as evidence?"

The guard shrugged his shoulders in a way that suggested that he either didn't care, or felt he had no choice then he watched as Sara and Grissom walked up the drive way into the laboratory.

As they walked, Sara felt the calm of the interrogation disappear and the tension rose again. She didn't know exactly what she'd do but she was determined not to let it settle.

"So, what do you think?" She said tentatively. For a moment she thought he was going to ignore her, but he slowly turned his head and she had to suppress a sigh of relief.

"I don't like that guy." Grissom said as matter-of-factly as he could.

"Well, you only just met him, give it time. Maybe he'll turn out to be the love of your life." She smiled. Grissom grinned at her and she felt warm inside knowing that she'd broken through his invisible barrier, even if only momentarily.

Seconds later, they both entered the freezing foyer of the laboratory where Nick, Warrick and Catherine were already processing the room.

-----

Once inside, Grissom couldn't help shivering. He knew perfectly well why it was so cold inside. Apparently Sara didn't.

"What the hell? Do they want to freeze us to death?" She asked holding her forearms with her hands to warm herself.

Grissom smiled involuntarily. He loved the feeling of teaching her something new.

"They're smart enough to try to preserve the body." He answered taking a look at some evidence Nick had just handed him.

Sara nodded. "and did they?"

Catherine stood up "we haven't gone in the lab yet, but at this temperature, they probably have."

Grissom handed the evidence back to Nick "take that back to the lab…you guys continue here, process this room then join us in the Lab. Sara, join me please."

He started walking towards the lab and Sara obediently followed.

-----

The main laboratory at the LV Gov. Lab was one of the largest Sara had ever seen. She knew that was saying something. There were test tubes everywhere and several locked cabinets. Grissom approached one of said cabinets.

"Guess we know where what they don't want us to find is…"

"…or used to be." Sara pointed out opening a cabinet which's lock was hanging open. It was completely empty.

She looked around and spotted the body. She had to shiver. This time it was not because of the cold, it was because of the expression of pain visible on the victims face. His mouth was open as if to shout, his fists clenched and his eyes semi-closed. Grissom strode over to it and started taking photographic evidence.

"I can't believe two days went by…" She really couldn't.

Grissom nodded "Coroner's going to be here soon, help me out will you?"

Sara nodded still looking at the corps then walked over to Grissom and started photographing the body as well.

Several minutes went by in total silence. Once the photographic evidence of the body was collected, Grissom allowed the coroner to take the doctor away and he and Sara began processing the rest of the room. Soon they were joined by Catherine and Warrick.

A while after Nick called in to say that the substance found in the foyer was unknown, Catherine called the team's attention to a small fragment of glass in the fume cupboard.

"Is this…" she asked examining the markings on the fragment.

"A piece of a syringe…" Sara filled in examining the other bits of glass on the floor and in the cupboard.

Grissom stood next to them deep in thought. "Sara, didn't you find a strange marking on the doctor's fore arm?" he kneeled down and picked up what looked like the tip of a pressure syringe.

Sara nodded, bagging the piece she'd collected and bending down to examine what Grissom was holding.

"Cause of death, maybe?" She said holding open an evidence bag for him.

"Well this is definitely not blood" Warrick said holding a swab in his hand. He pointed at the drops of a red viscous liquid that went from the fume cupboard down to the floor.

"Bag it. Greg will analyse it at the lab." Grissom proceeded to the other end of the lab and only looked back when he heard Sara sneeze.

"Really Sara…you should go home…" Again he tried to mask his concern.

"Im fine…I have no idea what this is, but other then that, I'm fine…" She pointed at the substance she'd dipped her gloved finger in. Nick rubbed her back and with a short nod left for the lab.

For some more hours, Sara, Grissom and Catherine processed what was left of the main lab, and proceeded to the rest of the building. Meanwhile, Warrick joined Nick at the CSI lab with the evidence collected so far.

-----

The next day, Catherine agreed to go back to the scene for more samples of the red substance. The coroner had given COD as renal failure followed by respiratory failure and finally cerebral failure. When asked, he had to admit that he had no idea what could have caused such an abrupt health change in an otherwise healthy 27 year old man.

It was Grissom who first pointed out that the substance they'd proven he'd been injected with was most likely what caused his systems to fail. And he didn't grow too concerned until Sara arrived.

Sara had agreed to meet him and the coroner at the morgue to examine the body. She'd been late and Grissom knew being late wasn't something Sara would do. When she finally did arrive, however, it was impossible for him to deny that she looked sicker than before. Her nose was permanently running and her voice was weak. On top of that, her skin was incredibly pale, there was some strange, red spot on her neck and, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it, there was something strange about her eyes..

"sorry I'm late…this flu is really getting to me…" She stood next to Grissom ready to hear the coroner's report.

The coroner nodded, handing her a tissue to replace the used one she'd been holding.

"Well, COD is, as I've said, multiple system failure. The cause of which is still unknown." He lifted the blanket to reveal the victims right forearm. "He was injected with something…"

"The red mystery substance…" Sara said examining the wound "definitely a pressure syringe"

Grissom nodded

The coroner proceeded "the strange red markings are most probably a reaction to the drug he was given and…strangest of all…" He lifted one of the victim's eye lids "his eyes are…well…take a look" 

Sara looked at them, they looked glazed over. It wasn't new to her…all bodies ended up like that.

"Isn't that normal? I mean, all dead bodies end up with that blind-man stare after a while" Sara looked at Grissom as he shook his head.

He took a magnifying glass and held it to the victim's eye so Sara could see. And it was definitely different to any other body she'd ever seen. The eyes were glazed over like normal, but there was something else, something she'd never seen before. The doctor's otherwise hazel eyes were blood shot, and the radial muscles were not only red, but bloody. There seemed to be a blood smear leaking from the muscles into the pupil and Sara had to admit it looked creepy.

After looking at the vic's eyes again, Grissom realised something that made his blood freeze. He quickly turned to Sara and holding her head in place with one hand, held the magnifying glass to her left eye. Now he could see what it was he had thought was different. Her eyes weren't glazed over…but they certainly were bloody, just like the doctor's.

"Grissom…Grissom!" She looked at him trying to pull her head from his grasp. "What are you doing?"

Grissom didn't respond immediately, instead he called the coroner over to take a look.

"Same thing no?" He watched as the coroner examined Sara's eye. When she saw the doctor nod, Sara grew worried.

"What is it? Grissom?" She sounded worried and he just wanted to comfort her. With a quick goodbye to the doctor, he escorted Sara out of the morgue and upstairs.

-----

They headed upstairs to the lab and, on the way, Grissom told her what he thought.

"Sara, I need a sample of your blood." He kept looking at the stairs as they went up.

"Griss, you're scaring me. What for?" She looked at him, and again saw his determination not to look at her.

"You had the flu yesterday…"

"You don't say." Now she was definitely lost

"You smelt the red substance…"

"We do that all the time." She really didn't see where he was going. She was about to stop and make him tell her when, as if having read her mind, he stopped and looked at her.

"I'm not sure of this…so don't spread it round. But a friend of mine in the Government told me…after a couple of drinks…that the two doctors over at the LV lab were working on some new advanced biological weapon. To kill without leaving a trace. A virus."

Sara still didn't understand, she had the flu, as did about 75 of the population at that time. That was all.

"Alright…but what does that have to do with…"he cut in before she could continue.

"If that was the virus, you inhaled it."

Sara was confused "then…shouldn't I be dead?"

Grissom decided it was time to continue moving "not if the virus mutated."

Sara looked confused at him as he opened the door to the lab floor.

"Because it was still being fabricated, there's a chance this virus was still unstable, likewise the flu virus is very unstable, it mutates very easily. If the virus from the lab got in your system…it will probably have changed with the flu virus and…"

Sara was really dizzy now and it wasn't only because she was confused, she would have fallen to the floor if Grissom hadn't caught her.

-----

In the few minutes after Grissom had told them what'd happened to Sara, all the CSI's gave blood samples to Greg for examination.

Sitting in the break room, Warrick turned a chair around and sat on it, his arms rested on the back of it.

"Man…what's taking him so long? Is it that hard to identify a small sample?" Nick was getting restless.

"How is she?" Nick asked Grissom as he looked into the lab where Greg was studying the samples.

"Asleep." Grissom continued to stair at Greg.

A few more minutes went by in which Warrick sipped his cup of coffee and Nick paced around. The silence was only broken when Greg entered the room with two cops behind him. Both Warrick and Nick looked up.

"You have the results?" Nick sounded impatient.

Greg looked at the cops "yea…"

Nick walked over and grabbed the sheet from his hand he studied it for a minute "what?"

Greg shook his head and the two cops grabbed Nick and Warrick's arms and escorted them to a sealed off interrogation room, behind them, Greg and Grissom followed in silence.

After leaving the CSI's there, the two uniformed men set off to get the rest infected people.

-----

"So what you're telling me is whatever that substance was…in might be in out systems?" Warrick sounded slightly worried.

Greg nodded "but we don't know _what_ it is." All we know is that the effects it had on the lab rats weren't good.

"But we do know that it's in Sara…" Nick looked at Grissom who nodded.

"I was right wasn't I?" Grissom had never hoped he was wrong more. To his great dismay, Greg nodded.

Nick and Warrick looked blankly at them.

After a brief moment of silence, Nick spoke.

"What exactly were you right about?"

Grissom sat down holding his coffee but didn't answer; instead he looked at Greg who proceeded.

"Sara had the flu…she inhaled the virus, it was still in an unstable experimental phase so it mutated. Basically, now she's carrying and infectious disease and the chances are we've all caught it by now."

Warrick opened his mouth to ask something but was delayed by the opening of the door and the coroner was pushed in. A few minutes later, Catherine was dragged in as well.

She glared at the two men as she watched them kick the rest of the people out of the lab and seal the exit doors. "nice guys…" she rubbed the spot on her arm where they'd taken her blood.

"What exactly is going on here, Grissom?" she knew he'd set things straight.

"We have a killer flu virus…" _That was blunt_ Catherine thought but she nodded.

"and Sara…" She continued. Grissom simply nodded towards the one-way mirror on his left. Catherine walked over and looked into the room besides them. There, in the corner, Sara was asleep on some blankets.

Warrick looked worried, but Greg was the first to speak. "Is she going to be alright?"

Grissom shrugged. He was desperate to change the subject from Sara. From the moment he'd caught her by the stairs until now, he felt like his heart being crushed in an invisible. He couldn't lose her. He'd spent a week blocking her out, and now he regretted it.

Then, as if to answer his prayers for a subject change, an A4 sheet of paper was pushed beneath the door, followed by several envelopes printed with each of the CSI's names. Grissom handed them out and put his own on the desk reading the A4 sheet first.

The others looked at him waiting for an explanation.

He read it over twice before speaking. "We're quarantined."

Everyone started to protest. But there was more. "the lab will be closed until an antidote is

found. We are confined to the building which has been evacuated." They all looked around at their 'prison'. Grissom continued, "There are three other infected people on their way, medical services will be provided if necessary…" he paused to read further down, What he was about to read was what made him feel relived "the virus has been found to have mutated…"

"Yes we know that…" Warrick sounded annoyed.

"…not as deadly…" Grissom continued scanning the sheet.

" '_as _' deadly?!" Nick didn't like the sound of that.

"…The victim died within minutes of being infected…we apparently have longer…" Grissom kept tryin to read between the lines to find the answer to the question he knew was coming.

It was Catherine who asked it "how much…longer?" Her voice was cool and sounded patient…but there was still an evident touch of concern in her words.

Grissom shrugged. "Doesn't say… does say however that public safety isn't at risk…guess that means we're the only ones who got infected…" Greg snatched the paper from his hands and Grissom decided not to tell him off and simply started reading his letter. On the table in front of him, there was another letter. It read 'Sara Sidle' and he knew he she had to read it. After a few moments of silence, during which everyone read their letters, Grissom decided the situation would become chaos if no measures were taken. So he announced he was going to check on Sara and decided that when he came back, he'd try and sort out what they were going to do.

"I'll be right back."

The only response he got was a nod from Catherine who was looking into Sara's room. Deciding that was good enough, he opened the door and entered the one next to it.

-----

Sara sidle had been semi-awake for several minutes. She found the absolute silence very frightening. She'd never heard such silence anywhere…particularly in the CSI lab. She only fully regained consciousness when the door moved open, and Grissom walked in trying not to make any noise, he closed the door and walked over to Sara, kneeling next to her.

Grissom's insides were twisting and turning at the thought that he might lose her. What he wanted to do was take her in his arms and assure her, between kisses, that everything would be fine. But he couldn't…Catherine was probably still looking through the one-way window, and it would be unfair to Sara, she was weak at the moment, and he couldn't take advantage of her.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the one person she wanted with her. Grissom smiled at her and she felt stronger…she barely felt ill anymore. Relief took over worry and she was happy to see he was looking at her without a hint of discomfort. She sat up and he reached for a blanket to put around her.

"Thanks…what's that, Grissom?" After being knocked out of his trance by the use of his second name, Grissom handed her the letter.

"Blood results." She nodded and began to open the letter which, Grissom noticed, was substantially larger than any of the others'.

He reached for one of the sheets she'd put aside as she read the main letter.

"May I?" He asked holding the list. She nodded and he began to open it.

It was a medicine list. That's why the packet had been bigger, looking back down, he saw several pills in small plastic wallets. He felt slightly comforted by the fact that she was being taken care of.

"Who else?" She asked as she closed her letter and looked at the pills and other peaces of paper.

"Me, Warrick, Catherine, Greg, Nick, Doc and there are three others coming." He smiled "one big pyjama party.

She couldn't help laughing at that.

He loved her laugh…every muscle in his body ached to hold her, but he had to get back.

"Are you alright to come next door?" He stood up and held out a hand to help her get up. She nodded and took it. He felt a shock travel up his arm at her touch, strangely, for once, he didn't decide to avoid it. If they were going to die, he wasn't going to waist time trying to pretend being indifferent to her. They walked out of the room, she didn't let of his hand, so neither did he.

-----

Catherine's attention was diverted from Grissom and Sara by the unexpected opening of the door. Two men in large plastic suits escorted Captain Brass, a cop she didn't recognise and the Guard from the lab into the room and without a single word turned and left.

Brass looked around "this is just great…"

The cop and the guard sat down in the corner, not knowing anyone. Moments later, they all turned to see Sara walking in followed closely by Grissom. They all greeted her, happy to see her on her feet and she took a seat next to Nick while everyone looked at Grissom. Apparently they expected him to take charge of things as much as he knew he had to.

"Alright…well…" He began "We're going to be here a while…so we need food, beds…as much medicine as we can get, just in case…" He had never thought of what would happen in a situation like that "So…Sara, you stay here…"

She had to protest "I'm fine…I want to help…"

He decided to ignore that and continued "Doc, you and Warrick search for medicine…first aid kits should have aspirin and other things of the sort…"

The two nodded and left.

Grissom continued "Catherine, you and Nick go find us some food, break room was just re-supplied. They'll probably decide that we need food eventually…but for the time being we're on our own." Catherine and Nick left leaving only Brass, the two guards Greg, Sara and Grissom. "Greg…" He couldn't think of what Greg should do.

"I'd like to continue investigating boss…if that's alright."

Grissom, nodded, they'd all continue to investigate; if they were going to be locked up in there, they might as well do something productive. Brass suggested that he and the Cop should go fix some rooms for sleeping in. Grissom would be sleeping in his own office. He had two couches and decided to let the guys decide who would take the other one. The truth was he'd much rather have Sara there with him than any of the guys, but asking Sara was not a good idea.

"Fine, you two go ahead, I'll come help you in a second."

Brass and the Cop left and now only Grissom, Sara and the flirty guard were left. The young man looked embarrassed at Grissom but was still the first one to speak. His didn't at all match the embarrassment etched on his face.

"Can I help?"

Grissom decided there was no point being mad at him and turned to face him fully.

"Actually, yes. Go to the main doors, you won't be able to get out, but you can communicate with the doctors out there. Get them to bring us food and any other necessities. We don't have enough of anything. They'll probably figure out we need these things, but it might take a while."

The guard nodded and left. Now, Grissom was getting ready to go after Brass. Sara wasn't going to just stay behind. She wanted to help.

"Come on, Griss. Let me help, I feel useless enough as it is."

Unable to resist her smile, Grissom gave in and allowed her to join him, Brass and the cop in accommodating the team.

-----

After having set out 'bedrooms' in four consecutive interrogation rooms, Grissom, Sara, Brass and the cop, who's name turned out to be Keith sat in the break room (the designated dining room) waiting for the others.

"Any Idea how long we're going to be here?" Keith didn't sound at all happy about the confinement.

Grissom shrugged "Until they cure us I guess."

"Or until we're all dead" Keith was really coming off as a pessimist.

Sara looked at Grissom, she tries to be calm, but he could see fear in her eyes, he looked back at her trying to tell her it was alright without having to resort to words.

Keith continued "You know I have two kids at home? They 5 and 3. My wife just got back from a business trip; I haven't even seen her since she landed. I can't die."

Again Sara looked at Grissom, this time he had to use words.

"Calm down, we're not going to die…We'll be working the case, to find whatever we information we can to help the scientists out there save us, and we'll solve the case."

"That's all you care about…solving the case. The man is dead. Honestly I don't care if he committed suicide or if he got injected with some deadly flu virus. I care if I'm ever going to see my children again. I care if my wife is left alone." Keith was really loosing his temper.

Grissom couldn't help thinking this was the type of chaos he'd predicted. Panic was the worse thing to deal with. He had no evidence to back up his claim that everything would be alright and without it, panic would definitely rise.

Brass was the next to speak "Fawler, keep it down man, we're not going to die. Everything is being done to fix the situation."

Before the conversation could continue, they were joined by Catherine and Nick who were holding some boxes with food.

"You wouldn't believe how much more snacks the admistrative floor has then ours. She put the boxes down on the table and heaving a sigh.

Nick looked through the glass walls at Greg who was bent over a microscope and taking notes.

"Poor kid is going to work himself to death." He actually did feel sorry for Greg.

Grissom believed what he was about to say "so long as he thinks he's helping, he is."

It took some time for the team to process what he'd said but they seemed to have understood. Before he could continue with his deep thoughts, they were joined by Warrick and the Coroner each holding several first aid kits.

"Aspirin and pain killers mainly." Warrick said putting down the kits and reaching in his pocket to take out some pill bottles.

"I deal mainly with corpses, so medicine isn't something I have around. I did, however find these in the cabinet downstairs." He displayed some bottles of Valium. "Remember that intern kid? What was his name? … anyway, he had them around for some lame excuse. If you ask me, he was just hooked on the stuff."

The cop examined the bottles, "Why would we need tranquilizers?

They all looked at Doc he seemed to think the answer is obvious "If your systems start shutting down, you might be in severe pain, you might be agitated, you might even have seizures. This is the best thing we have here to try and avoid those situations."

They all nodded and after a few second's silence turned to Grissom. Again he felt everyone expecting him to take charge.

He sighed and began speaking, "So…sleeping arrangements. The four interrogation rooms have been turned into our sleeping quarters. So, our lovely ladies, Sara and Catherine take room 2, Keith and…sorry, what's your name?" He looked puzzled at the guard who'd just walked in.

"Mike." He smiled at Sara and Grissom started to dislike him all over again "And, by the way, they said they'd get us some food as soon as they were sure it's safe to let anyone in here."

Grissom nodded and proceeded "…so, Keith and Mike take room 3, Brass and Doc you have room 4 and you three…" He pointed at Warrick and Nick and then across the glass wall at Greg "can choose who gets the other couch in my office. The two losers take room 1."

He had to grin as Warrick and Nick practically ran out of the break room to draw their luck with Greg.

Sara looked up at him and their eyes met briefly. She saw something in them, an emotion she'd never seen before. His baby blue eyes were the only way to see into Grissom's soul, she knew that much. But she'd spent so much time studying them whenever their gazes met that she thought she knew all his expressions. She knew sad Grissom was indicated by sparkly eyes, happy grissom had thin lines on the corners of the eyes, worried grissom had his eyes half shut and a slight frown on his forehead. All these expressions had some sort of tension about them. She knew that was caused by him trying to hide his emotions. But right now, there was not tension. She didn't know what it meant yet, but it made her feel good.

Looking into Sara's eyes, Grissom felt comfortable for the first time, letting his eyes stop momentarily on hers and not attempting to hide anything. If his eyes gave away what he felt, then so be it. He wasn't willing to pretend anymore.

Catherine, apparently oblivious to the tension between the youngest CSI and the supervisor broke the silence "What do you say we start thinking of what to eat?"

Grissom and Sara both fell back to reality and looked at her.

"Yea…sure. What do we have?"

Catherine stood up and started taking things out of the box.

"Tuna sandwich, Chicken sandwich, Snicker bar…" She named everything as she took it from inside the box and laid it down on the large table "…fitness bar, salad I stole from the admin. fridge, orange juice, apple juice, red wine also from the admin. fridge…" She continued pulling out apples, sandwiches and other snacks and the people in the room began taking what they wanted.

Sara sprang for the salad as soon as Catherine named it, Grissom settled for a tuna sandwich, Brass took the chicken sandwich, the cop and the guard both decided on fitness bars. Finally, when everything was out on the table, Catherine took an apple and a fitness bar and sat down to enjoy her 'dinner'.

No one spoke until the silence was broken by Nick, Warrick and Greg joining them.

"You're having dinner already? Thanks for calling us." Warrick grabbed some candy bars and sounded slightly annoyed.

Grissom smiled "I take it you didn't get lucky."

Warrick shook his head.

"So what's the verdict? Who gets my comfy couch?" He looked at Nick and Greg.

Greg held out a had and waved.

"Heya roomie…"

Grissom raised his eyebrows and Greg put his had down.

"So, Nick and Warrick, you're in interrogation room one, Greg, I hope you don't snore." Grissom smiled and got back to his sandwich.

After everyone had finished eating, Greg announced that he was going to back to work and no one stopped him.

Catherine decided she was going to bed and Sara followed. Nick and Warrick found a pack of cards and started playing poker with the cop and the guard. Grissom decided to go to his office and read for a while, and Brass chose to turn in, but not before confiscating the wine bottle claiming that no one was going to drink whilst on duty.

-----

Sara and Catherine got to their 'room' and each chose a 'bed'. They both agreed that those couldn't really be called beds, they were really only piles of blankets and pillows found around on all the floors.

Once she finished taping a sheet to the one-way mirror so that Keith and Mike couldn't look in, Sara looked to see Catherine at the other one-way mirror.

"You going to cover that?" She asked holding a second sheet.

Catherine looked at her like she'd just asked the stupidest question imaginable.

"Sara, are you not at all curious about what CSI Stokes and CSI Brown look like shirtless?"

Sara had to admit that although neither was the CSI she was most curious about, she wasn't going to pass up a chance to spy on the lab hunks

She smiled and sat at the table on the witness' side. Catherine joined her taking the interrogator's seat. They laughed at the awquardness.

"Miss. Sidle, you understand you have a right to an attorney?" Catherine joked.

Sara smiled "You're interrogating me?"

"We're girls, this as close to a sleep over as I've been in more then 20 years…yes."

Sara looked confused.

"What? Did you never have interrogation sessions with your friends at sleepovers?" She sounded curious.

"Off the record, I didn't have many friends. I was always the geeky science girl that people only came to for help with exams." She didn't seem bothered.

Catherine nodded "You want me to believe that you had no friends…not even _boy_friends?"

Sara looked at her straight in the eyes like she'd seen many witnesses doing, trying to find out where she was going with the information. After a few seconds, she decided it was safe.

"Well, _boy_friends I had" she smiled and Catherine laughed.

"I bet you did."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sara said sounding a little too defensive.

"Nothing. But I'm assuming you have someone permanent." Catherine pressed on, she'd worked with Sara for several years and new very little about her.

"No, no one…why would you think I did?" She couldn't help thinking of Grissom, wondering if Catherine had any idea of how she felt, After all, she was excellent at reading people. Catherine seemed to pick up that she was distracted and decided to continue with the questioning.

"But there is someone…you were just thinking about him…" She looked closely at Sara.

"No…like I said, none. I was just thinking of how pathetic my love life is. Anyway, why would you think there was someone permanent?" Sara tried not to make it sound like she was overly interested in Catherine's answer.

"Just because you have many guys in the lab interested, but you never looked twice at any of them. I just figured you were taken."

Sara looked at her trying to look incredulous. Of course she knew Greg was interested, and she knew Nick had been when they first met. "Guys?"

Catherine looked at her knowing she was pretending no to know "Greg Sanders…the boy has been completely head over heels for you…and it's not recent. You can't seriously say you didn't know that." Sara was about to open her mouth but Catherine proceeded "When you first arrived, Nick was interested. Now I _know_ you wouldn't deny a guy like Nick unless there was someone else."

Sara just stared at her. She'd known all this and was alright with denying it, even though there was no real reason too. But she was _not_ prepared for what came next.

"And last but _definitely_ not least…Grissom."

Sara's head jerked up and Catherine just smiled like what she was saying was painfully obvious.

"Please…Sara."

This time, Sara was genuinely confused. Catherine decided not to continue on that subject and just stood up and walked over to her 'bed' where she laid down. Sara had so many thoughts whizzing through her brain, she felt the safest thing was to leave the subject altogether. She turned in her seat to face Catherine.

"How about you?"

Catherine looked up not expecting a subject change.

"What about me?"

"Anything juicy? I don't know that much about you either. I know you were married, he's dead, you have a daughter…but what more?" Sara was actually interested; Catherine was a bit of mystery to her.

"Nothing. I live with Lindsey and that's that."

Now it was Sara's turn to look incredulous. She knew Catherine was an incredibly sexy woman, and she'd seen many guys flirt with her. "I've seen a fair amount of guys flirt with _you_ around here…"

Catherine raised an eye-brow and looked at her.

"Greg…"

Catherine laughed. Sara admitted it was funny that he so obviously tried his luck with every woman he came across.

"Nick…"

Catherine just smiled at her "Nick is gorgeous…but it's all innocent flirting."

Sara nodded "uh-hum." She raised her eyebrows at Catherine. "Warrick…" she'd like to see Catherine wriggle her way out of that one. She knew perfectly well that that wasn't just innocent flirting, even if he _was_ married. And by the look on Catherine's face, Sara could tell she too knew it wasn't just innocent flirting.

Catherine had expected Sara to go there. She knew she was just trying to get a reaction and thought she wouldn't give it to her. But she did. She could feel her expression change whilst she tried to fight it. It was true, she was attracted to Warrick. It wasn't love, but there was chemistry there…she knew it. But if Sara was going to play dumb about Grissom, she would do the same about Warrick.

"I honestly think that flu is getting to your brain. Warrick? _Married_ Warrick?"

Sara just nodded, a smile on her face.

"No…" Catherine shook her head trying to look as convincing as possible.

Sara kept smiling knowing she'd hit the right spot. She would have pressed on had it not been for the noise of a door opening. She looked to the one-way mirror and saw Nick and Warrick walk in. Warrick was holding a pack of cards, and Nick some candy bars which they'd been using to gable with. Sara looked at Catherine and nodded towards the mirror. Catherine stood up and joined Sara.

-----

Nick had been loosing miserably against Warrick and was feeling quite happy that all they'd been gabling were candy bars. They entered their room and closed the door. Since they'd been the last two in the break room, and it was getting late, they decided it was time to turn in.

They quickly selected a bed and whilst Warrick sat down on his, Nick went outside to the bathroom.

Warrick sat in the small room and looked at the ring on his left hand. He did that a lot recently. And the thought that invaded him was always the same one. _'Did I make the right choice?'_ .

-----

Looking through the mirror, Sara had to look over at Catherine when Warrick started looking at his ring. She noted that Catherine didn't really have an expression on, but was paying too much attention to be indifferent.

-----

Like he'd done several times before, Warrick brushed the thoughts away, and started taking his boots off.

-----

Both Catherine and Sara were interested now. Sara had seen Greg naked, but she'd always worried about the other two young CSI's. She was about to find out.

Through the Glass, Warrick took of his shoes and then his shirt.

'_I was right'_ Catherine though looking at his perfect upper body. His abs were well drawn out like they'd been chiselled by Michelangelo himself. She took in a deep breath and was relieved to seen that Sara was too busy looking at him to pay attention to her.

They would have carried on if they hadn't heard someone at their door and quickly snapped back to reality. They sprang away from the mirror. Catherine dove for her 'bed' and Sara for the chair. There was a knock on the door, and they both told the person to come in as casually as possible.

-----

Grissom stood outside the door not sure what he was going to say. He'd been sitting in his office reading and for once, his books weren't enough to take his mind off Sara.

He knocked and the girls called for him to come in.

-----

When she saw exactly who was standing in the door way, Catherine had to glance at Sara with an 'I told you' smile. Sara ignored her.

"Just checking on you…" Grissom looked at Sara then not to seem obvious, he smiled at Catherine, he was starting to feel calmer "Can I get you ladies anything?"

Sara was going to shake her head when Catherine spoke.

"Actually, yes."

"I'll take your order then…" He smiled at her.

"Coffee…" Then she looked at Sara who was examining her feet "what do you want Sara?"

Sara looked up.

"Oh…nothing, thanks."

Grissom nodded.

"I'll be right back."

After Grissom left, Catherine looked back at Sara grinning.

She looked at Catherine as pointedly as possible but still with a light, playful air.

"Oh shut up…go back to gawking at CSI Brown…"

Catherine shot her a semi-evil stare and pulled her shoes off.

Soon after that, Grissom came back with Catherine's coffee and bid them goodnight. Sara fell asleep before Catherine had even gotten half way through her cup.

-----

It was 10:30 by the time everyone had gotten up and gathered in the break room. After finishing his apple, Grissom decided it was time to hand out assignments.

"Catherine, Warrick, you and Doc go down to the morgue and try and find out any new information you can. Greg is already busy…"

"Did he even sleep a bit last night?" Nick sounded worried.

Grissom shrugged "not that I noticed, he'll have to take a break eventually. I'm going to go over whatever evidence we have and write up some notes. Sara you can…"

He looked up at Sara to see that she was extremely pale.

"…are you alright?" There was no masking his concern now.

Sara shook her head "I think I've got a fever."

Grissom felt his heart tighten again; he stood up and strode to one of the first aid kits. After searching a bit, he pulled out a thermometer, and gave Sara his hand to help her up.

"Nick, keep yourself busy, I'll be right back."

Nick nodded looking concerned at Sara as Griss led her out of the break room.

-----

Once inside her room, Sara sat down on her bed and Grissom handed her the thermometer.

She expected him to go back to the team, but to her surprise, he sat down on a chair and just looked at her.

"You can go you know?" She said placing the thermometer between her arm and body.

He shook his head "you're not alright; I want to know what you need."

Sara knew two things she needed: Sleep and Grissom "I just need to sleep."

Grissom nodded "Once we know how much of a fever you have, I'll get you some medicine and then you can sleep as much as you want."

The thermometer started beeping, and smiling at her, Grissom knelt down next to her and took the thermometer. Once it was in his hand, Sara let herself fall back onto the 'bed'.

"1o1º, not good." He handed Sara the thermometer for her to see it herself.

She handed it back to him and he stood up "I'll get you some water and an aspirin…I'll be right back, don't move."

Sara watched as her supervisor left the room. Deep down, she was aching more to have him hold her then she was in pain from whatever was eating at her insides.

Moments after leaving, Grissom returned holding a bottle of pills and a glass of water, he watched as Sara drank some and took two aspirins, then he left her to sleep.

Lying back on the pillows, Sara could see Grissom's shadow standing outside the door and she couldn't help wondering, rather, hoping that Catherine was right about him.

-----

Two hours had gone by since he'd left Sara, and Grissom had already gone through most of his notes. But there was something bugging him. The security guard hadn't been inside, as far as he knew, and only people who'd been with Sara after she'd been infected would have gotten ill. He knew the guard had talked to her before they entered the lab, but she hadn't been infected then.

Grissom put down the papers he was holding and walked out of his office to go talk to Mike who'd announced two hours earlier that he was going to go lay down.

Approaching his room, Grissom would have much rather gone to check on Sara, but this he had to know. He knocked on the door and when there was no response, he opened it.

-----

Mike hadn't lied; he only wanted to go to sleep. But when he'd passed by the window and seen Sara sidle lying down in nothing but underwear, he hadn't been able to stop himself and just stood there, staring at her perfect figure.

He was so out of it, that he only realised there was someone else in room when Gil Grissom's angry voice snapped him back to reality.

"What are you doing?!" Grissom's face was a mixture of so many expressions that Mike wasn't sure which one to go with.

"I was just…" He couldn't think of a decent answer.

Grissom looked angry now "Yea, I know what you were doing. You know she put that sheet up for a reason."

Mike was feeling cornered now "The sheet is down, look." He pointed at the window and Grissom looked at it.

It took every fibre of will in him to look back at Mike. Through the mirror, he could see Sara's perfect figure lying on the bed, her clothes tossed around the room. So many times he'd pictured her body, and not one of his fantasies could have matched the reality.

Mike stared at the eldest CSI hoping he'd understand, but when Grissom looked back at him, he knew he was still not out of trouble.

"How did you get sick?" Mike had expected almost anything but that to come out of Gil Grissom's mouth.

"I…um….Well, I don't know."

"Let me make this easier, when did you talk to Sara after we both did?" He was trying not to sound jealous.

"I didn't…" Mike hoped he'd be able to convince Grissom. He had no idea Grissom was this protective about Sara, nor did he know why, but something told him the truth wouldn't sit too well with the CSI.

"Boy…" Grissom rarely patronised people, he didn't feel good doing it, but this guy was asking for it "My job is to find the truth…and _you_ are lying." He could tell by Mike's face that he was feeling trapped "Did you go in the lab? We could have you arrested if you did…"

"No, geesh man. I asked her out, alright? She was sitting outside and I was interested…can you blame me?"

Grissom couldn't blame him, but he wasn't about to tell Mike that "You asked her out?"

"yea…I thought we made a connection at the booth, she looked pretty interesting." Mike was relieved to hear Grissom's tone had grown calmer "she's a babe, man."

"Well…_man_. Asking her out could very well cost you your life." Right now, Grissom just wanted to make Mike feel as bad as he could about asking Sara out. _His_ Sara.

Mike seemed to sense this wasn't just about the case "I'm sorry, man. I didn't know she was with you…"

Grissom looked at him stunned "What?! With me?"

"Yea…you know…you and her… she and you…I get it, like I said, she's a babe." He held his hands up as if to surrender and Grissom continued to looked at him confused for a few seconds then decided to leave. Before he reached the door, he turned back to the guard.

"You're coming too."

"What? I want to sleep, man." He didn't sound at all tired and Grissom knew it.

"If you want to sleep, do it in the break room, you're not coming back here until Sara is up." He sounded determined and was surprised by his own protective tone of voice.

Mike sighed heavily and, picking up his coat, left in front of Grissom.

-----

It had been an hour since Grissom had expelled Mike from his own room, and Sara was still asleep. He was too worried to concentrate on his work and so had switched to reading. He would have fallen into his usual trance, had a voice not interrupted him.

"How interesting…"

Before he could look up, a female hand lifted the book to look at the cover.

"'The wonderful world of entomology' … I thought you were going to work on your notes…" Catherine knew exactly why Grissom wasn't working, and honestly, she was worried too.

Grissom just looked up at her and smiled faintly.

"I was getting tired, couldn't concentrate."

Catherine smiled and closed the book placing it carefully on the desk.

"How is she?"

Grissom shrugged "Last time I saw, she was asleep and that _creep_ Mike was staring at her through the one-way."

Catherine noticed the hint of jealousy mixed with protectiveness in his voice.

"You know how he got sick?" He looked at her with a very serious face.

Catherine looked at him waiting for the answer.

"He went to ask her out. Apparently she's a 'babe'." Grissom looked at Catherine expecting her to have some sort of reaction.

"Well…she is 'on the market'…"

"What does that mean?" Grissom knew it meant she had no one permanent, but he liked to think he was, in a way, permanent.

"Well, last night I had a talk with her…that's what girls do in 'sleep-overs'."

Grissom raised his eyebrows interestedly.

"She said she didn't have anyone permanent…and that she wasn't interested in anyone…There's nothing to stop her going on dates with young guards…"

Grissom opened his mouth to speak but Catherine cut him off.

"Just cut the crap, Grissom. Screw the rules, screw the ethics…you want her…go get her. If you don't, someone else will…after all, she is a 'babe'."

Catherine stood up and picked up Grissom's book and handed it back to him. Then, flashing him a semi-pitiful, semi-concerned smile, she turned and left. Grissom just sat there, his mind racing.

He wanted her. But there were rules…there were jobs…there were ethics…she was 15 years younger then him…however, no matter how many 'cons' he came up with, there was one 'pro' that clouded them all: He loved her.

_Catherine is right_ he thought _I have to make my move…if I don't, she'll end up with a guy like Mike and I'll end up alone…_ He stood up and decided to go check up on her. He wasn't about to declare his undying love to her, but he was going to let her know how he felt, he knew, after years of studying people, that the smallest actions could reveal a lot.

-----

Sara had been awake for about 15 minutes, and had read through the medicine list that had come with her blood tests to find something to make the blistering head-ache go away. Her stomach was making noises and she looked at her clock; 13:45. No wonder she was hungry, she'd barely had breakfast, and it was lunch time. She picked up the wallet holding the 6 pink pills and took one as instructed. Hopefully, in half an hour, she'd feel well enough to go back to work. She had to take her mid off being ill, and she definitely had to take her mind off Grissom.

She was feeling more confused then ever. He'd blocked her out for a week, he'd seemed jealous around Mike, and now he was checking in on her, holding her hand and waiting on her every need. What exactly was going through that man's mind? Was he ever going to make his intentions clear? Was Catherine right? Did he love her? Should she make the first move? She knew Grissom to be an incredibly reserved man, and maybe it would have to be her to make her intentions clear for him to feel comfortable.

As she asked herself all these questions, there was a knock on the door and she quickly pulled the covers over her body. She'd flung her clothes off hours earlier to try and cool herself down whilst her flesh burnt with fever.

"Who is it?" She asked, reaching for her t-shirt and pulling it over her head.

"Grissom. Can I come in?"

Her heart seemed to skip a beat. She reached for her trousers as quickly as possible and, standing up in a matter of milli-seconds, pulled them on. Once the button was tied and the zipper pulled up, she told Grissom to come in.

The door opened slowly and she had to grab onto the desk not to fall over. The sudden shift in position from lying down to standing up had made her dizzy and the head ache was still killing her.

"I just came to check on you." His face was in the shadows, but Sara could see it wasn't as patient and reserved as usual.

"I'm fine, I was just going to get some food." She decided to take a step towards the door and show that she was fine. But apparently, she wasn't fine, just yet. Again, Grissom had to catch her in mid air to stop her falling to the ground.

"So…you're fine, huh." There was some humour in his voice and it made Sara feel happy.

He held her shoulders at arms length until she seemed stable.

"Lie down; I'll bring you some food."

Sara's head was suffering too much at the moment to argue. Not only did she feel like her head was going to split in two, but all the thoughts whizzing around, the sudden rush of adrenalin caused by Grissom's hands on her shoulders, were making it even harder to think straight. So she just nodded, walked over to her bed and sat down, her back to the wall. She watched Grissom walk away and the thought she'd been avoiding flooded her already frail head.

_What if I die? … No don't think that … But I could, the doctor did … You won't, everything will be alright, _he_'ll make it all fine. But if I do …_ She felt the tears fall out of her eyes as she thought this, slowly at first, but in torrents by the time Grissom came back.

-----

On his way back to Sara, Grissom started hearing the sobs as soon as he turned the corner. At first, it didn't seem like much, but he found that as the noise grew louder, his steps grew faster and more cautious at the same time.

He reached the door and pushed it open.

-----

In the corner, like an abandoned child, Sara was crying. He wasn't even sure if she'd noticed him come in. No matter how sad he felt, or how much the image ached in his brain and heart, he couldn't help but think that this was the moment he needed.

He placed the food carefully on the table, and walked over to Sara. She'd seen him now, he was sure of it. Her tear filled eyes were looking at him, strands of hair clinging to her face.

He wasn't sure what to do, and for once, he decided that the best course of action was to let his heart make all the moves.

So, guided only by pure love, and leaving logic and thought out of it, he knelt next to her. She looked at him as if she expected – wanted, even – him to comfort her. He took a hand and brushed away the hair from her face. She closed her eyes at his touch and he felt like he would sooner quit his job then break away from her. She placed a trembling hand on the one he was holding to her face and applied just enough pressure for him to know he could move closer.

He changed his position from kneeling to sitting and she drew closer to him. Before long, and without him really understanding how, Sara was silently weeping onto his shirt. He had an arm around her shoulders and her head was resting somewhere between his shoulder and chest. He could feel the tears soaking his shirt. He rubbed her back with his hand and she snuggled closer, holding him tighter with the hand that was swung across his waist.

Sara had never felt so safe. She'd felt completely lost when he'd left the room. The tears had come out of nowhere and she didn't know what to do. All she knew was, she wanted Gil. She needed him there with her, to tell her it was going to be alright.

When he finally came back, she'd expected him to try and talk to her, to ask her what was wrong. But he didn't. He did the one thing she wanted. He held her close to him. She could feel the connection; it felt like nothing could come between them. His strong arms felt reassuring against her trembling body. His hand on her back and his chin on the top of her head made her calm down. She couldn't help but think that even if she died, that moment would be there for ever.

It was several minutes before either of them talked. As Sara's sobs died away, and her tears dried up, she knew talking was imminent.

"Griss…I…" Grissom shushed her, and she realised she wasn't the only one enjoying the peaceful moment.

"Grissom…" The use of his last name pulled Grissom back to reality and he moved his head back and looked at Sara. _She's beautiful_ he thought.

"…I…" He didn't know what she was going to say, he knew what _he_ wanted to say but he wasn't going to.

"…thank you…"

Grissom smiled and brushed away another strand of damp hair and she smiled at his touch.

"You still want to eat?" Grissom stood up slowly, trying to keep contact with her for as long as possible, then walked over to the table and brought the food down to the bed.

"We've got a salad…" He pulled it out of the paper bag where he'd stuffed everything "A – stale - doughnut, orange juice, soda…take your pick…"

She picked up the salad and then looked at Grissom. "What are you having?"

He smiled and pulled a ham sandwich out of the bag. "Ham…"

She made a face and then laughed, he smiled.

-----

In the morgue, Catherine was the first to notice Warrick was looking bad. And by bad she didn't mean ugly…she could never think he did, but he looked wrong. Her suspicions were confirmed when Nick walked into the morgue to ask her something and stopped suddenly next to Warrick, looking at his face.

"Dude…you don't look good."

Warrick looked around at Catherine.

She simply moved towards him with a magnifying glass and looked through it at his eyes.

"Him too, huh…" Dr. Robbins took the magnifying glass from Catherine and examined his eyes. Catherine would have stepped back if she hadn't spotted a red mark on Warrick's neck.

"Is that a hickey?" She pulled his shirt collar down to reveal the whole spot.

"What?" He walked over to a mirror hanging on the wall and examined what Catherine was referring to "No…that isn't a hickey."

Dr. Robbins looked concerned. "Sara and our Vic had those too. I suggest you take him upstairs and get some medication into him."

Catherine agreed and she and Nick walked upstairs with a worried looking Warrick.

-----

Sara had just finished her Salad and was laughing at something Grissom had just said when they heard footsteps outside the room.

They could hear Catherine ordering Nick to take 'him' to the room and then they heard the door to the room they were in open.

"Oh, great you're up." Catherine looked at Sara, she was about to continue when she spotted Grissom. "What are you doing here?"

"Checking on Sara…" He said as if it was painfully obvious.

Catherine nodded and responded only with a faint, slightly sarcastic "uh-huh" followed by a concerned look "Warrick's sick."

Sara and Grissom both looked at her worriedly. "He's next door, he's got red spots like Sara and his eyes are all funny."

Both Grissom and Sara stood up - Grissom first, then after taking the hand he'd offered her, Sara – and followed Catherine out of the room and into the one next one.

-----

When the three arrived in Nick and Warrick's room, they saw Nick holding a cup of water next to Warrick. Sara approached him.

"You're going to be fine."

Warrick simply flashed her a blinding smile and laughed "I don't doubt it…with these two looking after me…"

He nodded to Nick and Catherine. Catherine smiled and then looked at Grissom.

"Chances are we'll all start getting sick…"

Grissom nodded "We have to get some more of those pills they gave Sara." He called her towards him with a movement of his hand and pulled down the collar of her shirt trying as hard as he could to suppress the urge to pull it off. "See, her spots are almost gone, and her eyes look better."

"I still don't feel right though." Sara said holding a hand to her forehead.

"But at least some of the symptoms are disappearing…doesn't mean you're perfectly healthy, but it's all we can do for." He smiled as he let go of her collar and she had to smile back.

-----

It was 14:30 pm before any of them remembered they had to eat. Sara and Grissom had already eaten, but agreed to go with the rest of the team to the break room.

They were quickly running out of evidence to process and the scene was going to become more and more compromised as time went by. Grissom had been pretty sure from the beginning that the murderer was one of the scientists. Most probably Jacobs' partner, but there was no way to going to interview him. As he thought this, he was mildly aware of the phone ringing and Sara picking it up.

"Sidle…yeah, sure…" She walked over to grissom and handed him the phone. Grissom looked at her, his eyes asking who it was and she just mouthed 'Ecklie' before making a face and going back to her seat.

Grissom sighed heavily and put the phone to his ear "Grissom. How are you, Conrad…how am I doing? Great. … oh really? They what? They can't reopen that lab until the case is closed! … what?! …Conrad! …ECKLIE!"

Everyone was looking at him now as he furiously hung up the phone.

Catherine was the first to speak "What'd he want?"

Grissom rubbed a hand over his eyes "They're handing the case to the day shift."

The room erupted in protests.

"That's not fair!" Warrick said punching the back of the chair he was sitting on.

Greg who'd just walked in was the one who looked most annoyed, not angry annoyed, more like disappointed annoyed. He'd been working on the case since it started, it was the one thing he could do to stop thinking of the worse. He knew all his colleagues were as scared as he was, but he had just started his career and had a whole life ahead of him. He'd been desperately researching and trying to find anything to help the doctors find a cure.

If they were being taken off the case, all the blood work and evidence would have to be passed over to the day shift and he'd be left with nothing but to sit in a corner and think of his impending death.

Nick seemed to sense how Greg was feeling and said what he knew Greg needed to hear "You can continue researching Greg."

Warrick nodded "We won't be able to solve the case, but at least we'll have some part of our fate in our own hands."

Greg was incredibly relieved to hear this. He smiled at his friends and walked back into the lab.

Sara sighed "He's going to work himself to death trying to find something. Our lab isn't made for this kind of research."

Grissom nodded "But let him try, It'll keep him distracted. We all need something to stay distracted otherwise we'll _all_ end up breaking down" Although no one else picked up on it, Sara knew he was referring to her tearful melt down earlier and had to agree with him.

The next one to speak was Warrick who reached in his pocket for a pack of cards. Everyone looked at him questioningly "Distraction…" was all he answered and started dealing a deck for each person.

Soon Warrick, Nick, Sara, Grissom and Catherine were engaged in a competitive Poker game which was being won by Warrick, but had Grissom in a surprising close second place.

"You're move Griss…" Warrick held his cards in his had and examined Grissom's face. Grissom took some candy bars from his pile and threw them in the middle.

"I'll raise you 4 bars…" Warrick examined his supervisor's blue eyes trying to find a tell, some sign of weather he was bluffing or not. But for the first time in his playing history, he couldn't find anything. Grissom looked as peaceful as ever and simply examined Warrick back until Catherine made her move.

After an hour of playing, Grissom had won and Warrick was staring shocked at the supervisor's royal flush.

"Where did you learn to play, Grissom?" He asked still staring at the cards.

Grissom simply smiled and answered "It's not about knowing how to play, the rules are easy enough…even Greg could play it. It's about reading people…something I happen to be good at."

He tossed Sara and Catherine one of the Candy bars he'd just won and handed one to Nick who was standing next to him.

"Ah…'reading'…" Warrick was still staring at the cards.

Grissom smiled again "Yes…quite simple isn't it…every day people lose fortunes in this town just because they don't bother to pay attention to people."

Warrick nodded "And where did you learn to '_read people_'?"

Catherine answered that one for him "Warrick…what do you think Grissom did at Lady Heathers that night? They just sat around, drank tea, played poker and 'read' people." There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice that stung both Sara and Grissom. He glanced over at her to see she was looking at him, apparently trying to read his reaction to the name.

Sara noticed that Catherine was also looking at her, apparently trying to detect jealousy. Sara decided not to give in and responded with as indifferent a voice as possible.

"Oh…" She stood up and walked over to Grissom and took another candy bar from him "…I know what _I_ think they did…and it didn't involve cards…"

She walked past him to exit the room and smiled back at Catherine letting her know that she wasn't going to give in.

As she walked back to her room, Sara saw that Grissom was walking back to his office, and through the glass walls, she noticed Nick had just mimicked whipping the air with sound effects and everyone was laughing. She couldn't help smiling herself.

-----

In the break room, Catherine looked at Warrick as they all laughed. _If only he wasn't married_ … she thought looking at his left hand. _What the…_ she looked again and noticed there was not ring on his finger … on either hand. Warrick noticed her looking and quickly shoved his hand under the table.

"I'm beat…" He stood up and yawned. Catherine thought it was quite a fake yawn, and a rather lame excuse to leave the room.

"It's three thirty pm, Warrick. You're getting old…"

He glared at her playfully. "Just wait 'till you're burning up…being sick is tiring…"

Catherine sighed as to tell him 'you're pathetic' and watched as he walked to his room. Once he was out of sight, she turned to Nick who was biting into an apple.

"I'm going to go keep Greg company…the kid is going to work himself to death." He stood up and walked into the lab where Greg was.

Alone, Catherine figured she'd just go and rest a bit. But she was worried. Warrick was acting strangely…not just because he was sick, but because he wasn't wearing his ring. He'd always worn it, in cases, in the lab, even in the morgue, and now, all of a sudden, he wasn't wearing it. The investigator in her was burning to know more. She stood up, threw her candy bar wrapper in the bin, and walked out to Warrick's room.

-----

Warrick wasn't an emotional guy, he'd never felt mushy inside about anything. He had a hard exterior, and definitely a hard interior. It had taken Tina months to get into him but only a few weeks to leak out. It had only been a few hours ago, when Catherine had stood close to him to examine his eyes, that he'd known for sure, that it was over. Looking back into Catherine's eyes, he couldn't help wishing he wasn't married to Tina. Not that he didn't like her, or that she was in any way wrong for him; she was beautiful, intelligent, young and lively. But…he couldn't believe he was thinking it…she wasn't Catherine.

As his thoughts filled with images of Catherine, he heard the door open and only looked up when Catherine's voice pulled him to his senses.

"You alright?" She sounded concerned.

He looked up at her "Yea, I'm fine…"

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to…but…where's your ring?" She looked at his had to make sure it wasn't there.

He wasn't quite sure what to answer "I took it off."

She looked at him questioningly "…why?"

He shook is head "…'coz."

She stared into his emerald-green eyes trying to find the reason. When she didn't, she moved closer to him and put her hand in her pocket. She took out a small transparent wallet, knelt next to him and handed it to him.

"Pills?" He asked examining the small round capsules in the wallet.

"Grissom told me to give them to you. They're the ones Sara's been taking." He nodded and thanked her.

Catherine kept staring into Warrick's eyes, finally, there seemed to be something there, some indication of what was wrong with him.

She felt her face turn red and began to rise to her feet. But something was holding her back. She looked at her wrist to see Warrick's hand grabbing on. She looked back at his eyes and immediately recognized what she saw in them.

"Warrick…" She didn't know what to say.

"Shhh…Cath…" He pulled on her wrist until she was only inches from his face.

"Warrick…I…" She had no idea why she kept talking.

"Come here…" He took the hand that wasn't holding her wrist and put it around her waist pulling her towards him until their lips touched.

Catherine had known where this was headed as soon as she felt his hand on her wrist, but still she felt a certain amount of surprise when the kiss she'd been dreaming about for years finally happened.

She shifted from kneeling to sitting next to him, and, without ever breaking the kiss, allowed him to manoeuvre her into a horizontal position.

Warrick didn't know exactly when he'd lost control of things. He suddenly found himself shirtless with Catherine lying on top of him, both looking into each other's eyes. He could sense she had questions to ask and knew he couldn't avoid them fro much longer, not after _that_.

Catherine took a deep breath and heaved herself off Warrick's unbelievably flat, muscular stomach and lied down next to him, her head propped up on her hand.

"…you have a question…" He looked at her and stroked her face with his hand. She smiled.

"…obviously…you already know what it is, though…" She looked him straight in the eyes and let him kiss her gently before speaking.

"…it's over…It all happened too fast, I did it for all the wrong reasons. I was scared something like what happened to Nicky would happen to me…But now it's over…"

Catherine examined his face as he spoke "You don't love her any more?" She both wanted, and didn't want to know the answer to that.

He shook his head "No, not enough to keep her in this marriage. It wouldn't be fair" He again stroked Catherine's face "I've wanted to do this for a _long_ time"  
She smiled and he flashed her one of his irresistibly blinding smiles before pulling her towards him for another passionate kiss.

-----

It was around five thirty pm that Sara woke up. She was sure it was an effect of the medication that was making her this tired. She, the woman who pulled triple shifts without once yawning was falling asleep every few hours; it was definitely not something she'd to.

She sat up against the wall and remembered the minutes she'd spent there with Grissom. She missed him, it had only been a few hours since she'd last seen him, but she missed him so much it hurt. She missed his smell, the touch of his hand against her face, his strong, comforting arms around her waist. Would she ever be able to admit how in love she was Gil Grissom?

She heard the door to Nick and Warrick's room open and close, followed seconds later by the door to her room opening and Catherine walked in.

She spotted Sara and seemed to consider backing out but changed her mind and simply greeted her.

"Where've you been?" Sara asked noticing that for once in her life, Catherine's flawless make up was slightly smeared.

Catherine shrugged and merely answered "No where in particular".

Sara wasn't going to let go, she was pretty sure what, rather, who was the reason for her smudged make up and wasn't going to let her off the hook "No where wouldn't happen to be next door would it?"

Catherine looked up and Sara saw a red spot on her neck.

"What's that?" She pointed at it, and Catherine examined it in the mirror, she knew what it was, but she wasn't about to explain how she'd gotten a hickey "…damn…" She rubbed it "…must be getting sick…"

Sara smiled at her and Catherine turned around "What?"

Sara continued to smile "If you _were_ getting sick, you wouldn't rub the spots…they hurt."

Catherine's face went blank; she'd tried to conceal the truth and failed, quite miserably.

"You speak of this to anyone…I'll…" She had to think for a minute of what she could do to Sara to stop her commenting on the fact that Catherine had spent two hours in Warrick's room…

"You'll what?" Sara was smiling now, finding Catherine's struggle highly amusing.

Catherine had to smile when the idea hit her "I'll tell them about you and Grissom."

Sara wasn't quite sure what she meant "Me and Grissom? What exactly is there to tell?"

Catherine pulled her collar further up to cover the evident mark on her skin "Nothin…yet."

Sara glared at her and she glared back, then they both burst out laughing.

"You and Warrick?! How was it?"

Catherine continued laughing and to respond just showed her the hickey again Sara resumed laughing.

"Pretty good then…" They couldn't stop now.

-----

Warrick was sitting up in his bed hearing the laughter coming from next door. He had been sitting there since Catherine had left.

Although it may have seemed like he was, he wasn't regretting what had just happened, on the contrary. He was trying to figure out how to tell Tina it was over between them so it could happen more often. He wasn't in love with her anymore, but she was still a dear friend, and he didn't want to hurt her. _But how exactly do you leave a woman without hurting her?_ he thought. As Catherine and Sara's laugh died down and all he could hear was snippets of conversation, he decided to figure out the details of what he was going too do later. Now he just wanted to enjoy himself.

Standing up, Warrick walked out of his room and knocked on the door to the girl's.

-----

The knocking on the door made the two female CSI's stop talking.

"10 bucks it's Grissom wanting to see you again" Said Catherine standing up and walking to the door.

"10 bucks it's Warrick _wanting_ you again" Said Sara leaning back on the wall smiling.

Catherine opened the door and found that she had lost the bet. Warrick smiled at her and walked in before being asked in.

"Hey Sara…" He nodded at her.

"You win…" Catherine said walking up next to Warrick.

Sara sensed that at any moment, the two were going to start making out and she thought it wiser to leave. So she stood up and headed for the door.

As Warrick passed his hand around her waist, Catherine turned to Sara before she left.

"I wonder where you're going…"

Sara frowned at her "…um…the break room…bathroom…away from what's about to happen here…"

She laughed when Warrick looked up from studying Catherine's neck and exited.

-----

The light was starting to dim outside. That was the problem with this time of year, the light started to disappear very early and, for anyone not in a romantic relationship, that was rather depressing.

Sara walked into the break room and sat down at the table with a cup of coffee.

Once she'd managed to rid her mind of pictures of what might be going on in her bed room, she felt her thoughts being taken over by the usual subject. Grissom. Why was he so reserved? Why didn't he just make a move? He'd made it pretty clear he wanted to…hadn't he? Again Sara felt she had more questions then answers and decided she would use the time they were locked up together to get the answers she needed. He'd said it himself, it was important to read people, so she was going to read him.

-----

For the past two hours, Grissom had been sitting in his office, reading. For the second time in a short period of time, he found that the book that would normally have interested him, was boring him to death.

Since he'd left the break room after the Poker game, he'd felt weird. _She didn't care_ he thought _Catherine practically said I'd slept with Heather and Sara doesn't care._ He needed her to care, because he'd cared when she'd been with Hank, and he'd cared when Greg had asked her out. He needed her to care because if she didn't, if she didn't care about him, there was nothing left for him. He needed to tell her he loved her, he needed her to tell him she loved him…

He felt his eyes close and he slipped into a dream he'd had several times.

_There he was, like he'd been for several nights, examining butterflies in his office when he looked outside and instead of the city of Vegas and the endless desert, he could see a__n infinite filed of flowers and fluttering butterflies. He knew exactly where to look, and there, in the middle of a clearing where all the butterflies were flying in circles, was Sara. He noticed that every time he had the dream, the distance between him and Sara increased. _

_Today however, the dream took a very different turn. The butterflies began to fly faster and faster until a swirling twister of bright colours surrounded Sara and all he could do was watch from his office as Sara was taken away from him._

He woke up suddenly startled.

There was no mistaking what that dream meant: If he hadn't spent so much time doing his job, Sara wouldn't be that far from him and now he wouldn't have to fear losing her without ever telling her he loved her.

-----

The next couple of days went by much like that afternoon.

Greg Sanders had finally caved and had slept 10 hours straight on Grissom's spare couch. He'd spent the first three days of their confinement researching, and it had taken both Nick, and Grissom to drag him to the office and talk him into resting.

Nick had spent his time either chatting and playing cards with Warrick and Sara, or sleeping. He seemed to be getting ill but his strong Texan constitution was putting up a decent fight with the virus and so far all he had was a slight fever.

The cop and the Guard were apparently not speaking. There had been an argument on the third night and no one bothered to ask why. The CSI's were used to uniformed guys being arrogant. Keith was alright, in Grissom's eyes, but Mike, being the lower of the two managed to be the most annoying uniform he'd ever met.

On top of his fight with mike, Keith had become the sickest of them all. He'd spent the last full day lying in bed and wasn't responding to any medication he was given. In his case, they'd all began to expect the worse. Everyday, he phoned his family which made it all the more heart wrenching to watch him so close to death.

Warrick was surprisingly happy for a man who's marriage was going to end very soon. His relationship with Catherine was a secret to everyone but Sara and Nick, partly because they shared rooms with both of them, partly because neither felt telling anyone else was a good idea.

Brass was the only one other then Greg who wasn't ready to kick back and relax. He kept checking in at the station to make sure he was missing out on anything important and, everyone took the same approach on him that they did with Greg: if he it kept him from thinking he was going to die, then they didn't oppose it.

Catherine was completely relaxed, she called Lindsey frequently and checked that everything was okay whilst she was staying at the neighbour's, and when she wasn't chatting friendlily to Sara she was with Warrick. She couldn't help thinking that this quarantine had its benefits.

Sara was actually feeling much better, on the third day, the doctors who were stationed outside the lab had sent them some new pills that they were developing, it wasn't a cure, but at least it was more effective in fighting the symptoms. She and Catherine seemed to have become friends and she felt great having someone to talk to. She didn't exactly pour her heart out to Catherine. If someone was going to know how she felt about Gil Grissom, it was Gil Grissom. She just had to figure out how to let him know.

Grissom was basically the same as he'd ever been in everyone's eyes. He spent his days either reading or dozing off in his chair, he didn't seem more or less relaxed about not having work and he was as enigmatic as ever.

Since the episode in her room, Grissom had decided he would have to tell Sara his feelings. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but for the second time in his life, going to let his heart do the thinking.

-----

On the fourth day of their quarantine, the CSI's had basically turned into vacation mode. They only spoke about work in reference to old cases they'd solved, usually during a round of 'the weirdest cases' – a game they'd lately taken to playing.

All their meals were held in the break room and even Greg joined them for at least two hours every lunch and dinner.

They had discovered that Nick was an amazing cook, and after having received some food supplies from the outside world, they'd used their Bunsen burner's as stoves and were enjoying Texan cooking for almost every meal.

Mike had finally moved to a different room to be away from Keith and they barely saw him any more, which lightened Grissom's spirits. Brass had finally given up on trying to control the station via telephone, and had joined the CSI's in enjoying some well deserved time off work.

That afternoon, after some spectacular Chilli that Nick had cooked, the team sat around the table watching as Nick and Warrick started a drinking game they'd both played in college. Except, instead of tequila shots, they used orange juice. Both had complained about Brass' 'no booze' policy but were having too much fun now to whine.

The rules to the game were simple: One asked a question, if he'd done it, he took a swig of juice from the bottle (if he hadn't, he just passed it on to the other) and then if the other had done it, he too drank some juice.

Warrick went first, "Have you ever … proclaimed undying love to someone?" He took a shot and looked at Nick. Nick paused a minute and took one himself.

"My turn" Said Nick examining the bottle "Have you ever … cheated on someone?"

He drank from the bottle then handed it to Warrick who shook his head, then looked at Catherine and seemed to remember he had and had a drink too.

They kept going for a long time until they were out of juice, and every now and then, a different member of the team joined the game. When the bottle had finished, even Greg had come out of the lab and joined the game only Grissom wasn't playing, though he was having fun watching. Since they weren't about to stop, Greg went to the fridge, took out an apple juice bottle and returned to his seat with it.

"Have you ever … been attracted to someone at work?" Greg basically wanted to know was Sara had ever been attracted to him. He took a drink and passed the bottle to Catherine who took a drink, she passed it to Nick who just passed it on to Warrick who took a drink then passed it to Sara.

Grissom had been paying special attention to the last question. Greg was no surprise; he'd always had a thing for Sara. Even though he had never actually been told, it didn't take an expert to know that something was going on between Catherine and Warrick, but it was Sara's answer he was interested in.

Sara held the bottle in her hand, feeling Grissom's eyes on her as well as the rest of team's, she hesitated for a moment, then thinking _what the hell_ put the bottle to her mouth and drank.

Grissom almost sighed of relief; Catherine smiled knowing who the 'someone at work' was; Greg grinned not knowing that she hadn't meant him and Nick and Warrick looked interested.

For the first time, conversation broke out and interrupted the game.

"Who?" Nick looked at her interestedly.

Sara could still feel Grissom's blue eyes on her face, and didn't dare glace at him.

"None of your business, _Nick_…Since you're only one didn't answer 'yes'…you ask the next question…"

Nick seemed to want to protest and was getting ready to ask his question when Catherine spoke.

"Grissom didn't answer either."

_Thank God_ thought Sara, now she had a good reason to look at him.

Grissom had been caught of guard by that one and simply responded "I'm not playing" and raised his hands. Catherine glared at him trying to ware him out.

"Come on Grissom…we all want to know…it's the point of the game…to get to know more about other people." Greg incentivated.

"…I'm just an observer" Grissom tried to get out of it again, but Catherine's words echoed in his head '_you want her? … Go get her'_. He looked around the group and his eyes met briefly with Sara's. Adrenalin pumping through his veins, he reached for the bottle from Sara and looked at her again before closing his eyes and drinking. They all cheered.

"Looks like you're the odd one out, Nick" pointed out Catherine who was smiling, "You ask the next question."

Nick took the bottle from Grissom and started thinking. Grissom chanced a look at Sara whilst everyone was looking at the other way waiting for the next question. Though she too was looking at Nick waiting for the next question, Sara seemed to think the same as Grissom because she too chanced a glance his way. Like two smitten teenagers, their eyes met and they both turned the other way faster then they ever thought possible.

"I got one…" Nick held the bottle out in front of him "it's not a 'have you ever question' but you can answer yes or no so it works. Who here has, or has had a tattoo?" He drank and passed the bottle to Warrick who drank and passed it to Catherine who didn't drink and passed it to Greg who hesitated a bit but then drank. He then passed it to Sara who drank without hesitating and passed it to Grissom who just put it down on the table.

Again the team broke out in conversations. Catherine decided to put some order to the situation.

"Alright, I'm going to assume we want to know _what_ tattoos each of us has…so come on people…fess up." She looked around to see who was going to go first, when no one volunteered, she picked on Sara, "You start, Sara."

She sighed and pulled her foot up onto the chair to reveal the tattoo that only Greg had seen "Got that one just before I came out to Vegas…and…" She wasn't sure if she wanted to show the next one, but decided she might as well. She stood up, turned around and pulled her t-shirt up to reveal a beautiful butterfly on her lower back. They all looked at it until Greg broke the silence.

"A bug?" He looked at her.

"Well, actually Greg, it's an insect, of the class 'Lepidoptera' to be exact, but if you wish to be crude about it, sure … it's a bug." Grissom looked back at the beautiful tattoo once more before Sara sat back down and they moved on to Nick's tattoo.

Had Grissom just stood up for her, or her tattoo? Sara's heart was beating abnormally fast in her chest. She would have gone off into another daydream if the howling that came from her team mates hadn't pulled her back to reality.

She looked around to see everyone mesmerizing at Nick's full back tattoo of a dragon. She had to admit it was pretty impressive, the dragon's fire breath spreading out from Nick's spine over his muscular left back to his shoulder. Only Grissom didn't seem too impressed, but no one had expected him to prefer a mythological creature to an insect, particularly one that was on Sara's lower back.

Next, Warrick showed them his tattoo: a tiger leaping out of a painted-on hole in his skin. Again, impressive thought Sara as she examined the elaborate drawing on Warrick's shoulder blade. She noticed that the tiger's eyes were painted the same colour as Warrick's and saw Catherine smiling in a daze at it.

Finally, they all turned to Greg.

"Come one, Greg. What was it you were hesitating about?" Catherine teased as they all turned their attentions to Greg.

"A topless mermaid?" Tried Nick.

Warrick decided to have a go "A naked babe on your shoulder blade?"

Greg sighed heavily "I have to mention that I got this as a dare…"

He stood up and pulled his shirt up to reveal the geekiest thing any of them could have imagined. There, on his left side about two inches bellow his heart, was the formulae: EMC2.

The team burst out laughing; even Grissom had to smile at that. Greg was, without a doubt the biggest geek any of them had ever met.

The youngest CSI pulled his shirt down and sat back on his seat.

"Can we continue…" He sounded as embarrassed as his face indicated.

Catherine was trying to stop laughing "Sure…I say the guy with the geekiest tat asks the next question."

Greg held the bottle out in front of him as everyone stopped laughing and waited for the question "…I got one… Drink if you've ever had a crush on a teacher."

He was the first to drink and when he had finished said "Here's to Miss. Watts, 7th grade." As he passed the bottle to Sara.

Sara had to think about it for a moment. No one in elementary school _what kid falls in love at 5? _she thought to herself. No one in college … well, except for… did lecturer's count? He wasn't exactly a teacher, but then, he _was_ … He'd taught her … _oh, what the hell?_ She found herself thinking for the second time that afternoon and took a swig of apple juice.

"Who?" Warrick asked as they all surveyed her.

"Come on!" Pleaded Greg "I told…" He tried to look at her sweetly; a failed attempt she found herself laughing at.

"…College, there was this week where several lecturers came in from around the country…I don't remember his name." She hoped no one noticed she was lying.

How could she not remember his name? Not only was he sitting next to her, he was one of the few world-known entomologists in the country.

Everyone seemed satisfied with her answer and they moved on to Grissom.

"It's been too long since I was in school. I don't even remember my teachers." He said simply passing the bottle to Nick.

After they'd found out that Nick had had a crush on his eighth grade teacher Mrs. Grant and that Catherine had actually had an affair with her 11th Grade physics teacher, they moved on to other questions.

An hour after Grissom had started suspecting Sara did remember the name of her lecturer, the Team ran out of questions and after a few moments of silence, Greg announced he was going back to work. After that, one by one, the team went their separate ways. Nick went to sleep for a bit, Sara did the same, Grissom went to read some more in his office. Catherine and Warrick had apparently both decided to go 'call Lindsey and Tina' and ran off to some deserted room.

-----

At eight thirty pm, Sara woke up and felt her stomach begging for food. She stood up to leave the room and through the mirror, she saw that Nick was fast asleep. _Great_ she thought, the cook was dead to the world, and she was starving.

In the break room, she expected to find someone, but there was no sign that anyone had been there since the game and she decided to just go walk around.

Greg wasn't in his lab. Although she managed to find Catherine and Warrick, communicating with them seemed to be out of the question. Mike was asleep in the waiting area, Keith was to sick to even lift his head, Brass was no where to be seen. That left Grissom.

She walked by the supervisor's office expecting him to either not be there or be asleep, after all, that's what had happened with everyone else.

To her surprise, she heard a voice calling.

"Sara…" She looked to where the voice was coming from and saw Grissom opening the door to his office to let her in "Come in…"

She looked at him, smiled and walked in.

"Everyone else is either asleep, sick, disappeared or … busy. What have you been doing?" She said trying to justify her sudden visit as she looked around expecting to find an open book on his desk or something to indicate he'd been reading or researching, but there was nothing.

"I was just sitting, thinking." He said motioning with his hand for Sara to sit on the couch. He sat in the chair opposite her.

"Thinking…" Sara looked into his eyes and felt her muscles tighten to prevent her jumping onto him, "What about?"

He seemed to hesitate, "Am I too late?" He kept his stare on her eyes and could see her struggle to understand what he was talking about.

"Too late?" She wasn't sure what to make of this.

"I figured it out." He saw something behind her eyes and figured she'd caught on.

Was he really going where she thought he was going? Were these all references to the conversation they'd had a while back?

"Figured out…what?" She decided not to assume anything until he came out and said it.

Grissom moved forwards in his chair and felt his body beg to touch her "What to do…"

Now, she was sure. He was talking about _them_, but still, she was decided to make him say it.

"What to do about _what_?" She had to fight back a smile as she too leaned forwards.

He was smiling now, understanding that she was going to keep playing dumb, "about…_this."_ He held his glasses in his hand like he had the first time they'd had that conversation and pointed them from him to her.

She smiled and he felt his insides blazing. He had finally managed to do it. The ball was in her court now, so to speak.

_Finally_ she thought as she asked "really…and what is that?"

She felt his hand take hers and she found that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep her stare off her supervisor's deep blue eyes.

"Have dinner with me…"

This time she decided to end the sentence for him, after all, she'd been the one to say it first "…lets see what happens."

Now they were both smiling. Both their hearts were beating fast but in sync, their eyes were trapped to each other's gaze. She felt she could have stayed like that forever if Grissom hadn't moved.

All she knew was that somewhere between when she'd been staring into his eyes and now, Grissom had moved closer to her. He was no longer sitting on his chair, he was kneeling in front of her, his face mere inches from hers.

"Grissom…I…" She wanted to _finally_ tell him how much she loved him, and would have if his finger hadn't stopped on her lips as he shushed her.

She kissed his finger and he removed it, each second moving closer to her until their lips touched in the kiss that had been building up since the day they'd met.

It started soft; a mere tentative peck, but quickly escalated to a passion-filled kiss heightened only by the fact that somehow, they were now lying horizontally on Grissom's couch.

Neither was sure how long they'd been there, but lying on the floor in each other's arms, neither cared if their whole life had just whizzed before them. Their clothes were flung all around the room, and for the first time, there was absolutely nothing standing between them.

It was all so perfect, Sara couldn't help thinking as she kissed his surprisingly muscular chest. She'd come to him just wanting company, and was now lying in his arms like she'd dreamed of doing for years.

Grissom couldn't have thought of anything he'd rather be doing than lying there with Sara. _She's perfect_ he thought taking in the fresh scent of her hair. Nothing could have ruined that moment for him.

Then, as if in a trance, Sara looked into his eyes and kissed him gently on the lips.

"I love you, Gil." She smiled and he pulled her towards him in a passionate kiss.

"Sara…" He said, between kisses on her neck "…I love you more than you can possibly imagine." He moved his attentions from her neck to her lips once more as his hand rested over the butterfly tattoo.

Then it hit him…that butterfly, it was…wasn't it?...

"Sara is that tattoo…"

She simply smiled and kissed him "You're the bugman, you figure it out."

"It's the Blue Morpho, isn't it?" he smiled at her as she nodded.

"…she was on the cover of the book you gave me for my birthday…I thought you'd have figured that out earlier…" She smiled again, no matter what she did, she couldn't help it.

"I would have…but I wasn't so much looking at your tattoo as…" She giggled as he moved his hand up her back.

They would have continued just like that if Sara hadn't hit her fallen watch as they rolled and found that it was almost ten thirty pm.

She held the watch in her hand so that Grissom could read it.

"That could be a problem…" He said as she stood up to collect her clothes.

Smiling, she found her shirt hanging over his butterfly display "We're going to have some explaining to do…"

"Or…" He said reaching for his trousers "…they'll all still be asleep and we won't have to worry."

Soon they were both fully dressed and in each other's arms again, but this time, standing upright instead of lying.

"For the record…this is a secret right?" She asked as he kissed her neck. The only response she got was feeling him nod as he kissed her.

"Griss…Gil…" He looked up smiling at the use of his first name "I got to go…"

After one more passionate kiss, Sara started making for the door but felt his hand hold on to hers. She looked at him.

"One question, then I'll let you go."

She smiled and waited for him to ask it.

"…What was the name of that lecturer in college? The one who's name you claim not to remember" He was grinning at her

She took as step towards him and again found herself only a short distance from his face. She moved closer until she could whisper in his ear "_Gil Grissom_…"

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into yet another ardent kiss.

After forcing herself to pull away, Sara exited the room and stood against the closed door remembering everything that had just happened.

-----

Walking through the corridors, Sara couldn't hear anything. _That's good_ she thought as she reached her door. If everyone was asleep, they wouldn't have noticed she was gone for so long.

Her peaceful state of mind was only broken when she opened the door to her room and was immediately greeted by a voice.

"Where have you been?" Catherine's voice came from one of the chairs.

Sara looked at her and replied sarcastically, "Hi, mom."

Catherine stood up and examined the younger CSI as she sat on her bed against the wall.

"Where were you?" Catherine persisted.

Sara simply sighed "Have you had dinner yet? I'm starving." She looked around the room looking for something to change the topic to. But Catherine wasn't going to let go.

"What am I saying? I know _where_ you were."

Sara looked up at her mildly shocked.

"My question is more _what_ were you doing there?" Catherine examined Sara's face like she did to Lindsey when she knew she was hiding something.

"I'm really hungry…you coming?" Sara stood up and walked out the door.

Given that Catherine wasn't going to let go until she got the information she wanted, she could do nothing but follow.

-----

Once they'd finally awoken Nick, Sara, Catherine and Warrick sat in the break room while Nick cooked. There was a strange silence between them. Catherine didn't want to know where Sara had been because she was nosy, although she was. Nor did she want to know because se disapproved, how could she? She'd just spent hours making out, amongst other things, with Warrick. She really wanted to know because she thought it was about time those two got together. And she wanted to be happy for them. She'd never get a word out of Grissom; she thought it was worth a try to get it out of Sara.

Catherine's thoughts were interrupted by Nick placing what he'd just cooked in front of them. Each plate had a large steak with a delicious-looking sauce streaming from it. They all cheered and began eating.

"Any one know if the others are joining us?" He asked looking at the 5 extra stakes he had on the counter.

"Well Keith's too sick to move, but I can take him some. Though, I doubt he'll be able to eat it, I can try..." Said Warrick.

He stood up and took one of the plates out of the room.

"Mike won't come, he hasn't joined us for anything, just leave it there if he gets hungry he'll eat it. Brass has disappeared, but I figure he's somewhere in the admin. floor so he's got plenty of stuff there, so just leave that one in the fridge too. I'll get Greg in a minute, and I couldn't be sure about Grissom." She looked at Sara as she said the last name.

"You could ask him…" Sara said in as indifferent a tone as she could manage.

Catherine studied Sara's face. _Damn these two_ she thought referring to Grissom and Sara _they don't let anything slip_… She stood up and ran in the lab to call Greg who loved Nick's cooking so much he was always ready to drop what ever he was working on to go eat.

Once Greg was in the room and already half way into his stake, Catherine went to call Grissom.

-----

Although he was insanely hungry, Grissom didn't want to leave his office. He feared that as soon as he stepped out into the dark corridor, he'd realize that the last hours had been nothing but a dream.

As he prepared to fall asleep on the couch, he heard knocking on the door followed by Catherine's voice as she opened it.

"Dinner's ready…" She looked at him as he sat up.

"Thanks…"

She got ready to leave but noticed he wasn't moving.

She smiled back at him "You coming?"

He looked up at her "…yea, sure…you go ahead."

Catherine sensed some thing was wrong. She closed the door and sat on the couch next to Grissom.

She surveyed him for a few seconds before speaking.

"What on earth could possibly be troubling you _now_?" She looked at him and he looked back trying to understand what she meant.

"Catherine…what?"

She just looked at him until he started to think she knew about what had just happened.

"Grissom…you wanted her…you got her…"

Grissom's senses started to tell him to lie "What…no…what are you talking about?"

Catherine looked at him, a hint of sarcasm and mockery in her eyes "Gil, when you spend two hours locked up with a beautiful brunette, in your office, alone, at night, when no one else is around. You can't possibly think I wouldn't figure out what was going on."

Grissom's felt his face give in even though his brain was telling him not to.

He sighed heavily "I'm just scared it'll all turn out to be a dream…"

Catherine put a hand on his back.

"If you don't go out there, pretty soon it will be nothing but a memory…"

He smiled at her and agreed.

-----

In the break room, Sara desperately wanted to know what Catherine was saying to Grissom. There was no doubt she knew what had happened, and although Sara knew Grissom better then most, she didn't know many people who could resist Catherine's interrogations.

The silence that had settled as everyone ate their steaks was broken all of a sudden as Warrick raced into the room.

"Guys…" He said trying to get his breath back "…It's Keith…he's…well…just come."

He raced back into Keith's room and after a couple of confused looks, everyone followed him.

-----

For the last couple of days, pain had been Keith's only company. In a way, he was thankful for it. Though he didn't know why he was sicker then anyone else, he had to face the facts that he was probably not going to make it. The feeling of pain was the only thing reminding him that he was still alive. Whenever he felt the pain fade his fears of death took hold of him and took him to a state of near panic.

When he'd seen CSI Brown walk in with food, he'd tried to sit up but that seemed to be all death had been waiting for. He had barely moved an inch when the unbearable throbbing began. As his insides seemed to burst in pain, he saw Brown sprint out of the room. It was only a few moments before he returned with help.

He heard the Texan CSI tell someone to get help and two people ran out. One was the pretty young girl Mike had referred to as Sara. She told them she'd get Doc Robbins. He didn't know who he was, but hoped he could help. Meanwhile, the youngest of the bunch said he'd try and get medical help from the outside and ran in the opposite direction.

The first to arrive back were Sara and the limping doctor he now saw was the coroner. This did nothing to ease his pain or fears.

By the time the guy he presumed was Greg got back, Keith could feel his air way closing down and realised that must be what it felt like to be asphyxiated.

He heard the beautiful blond woman that was now checking his pulse ask where the doctors were.

All Greg had answered was "They're too busy putting on their space suits. They won't get here on time."

They all looked down at him with concern etched in their faces.

-----

Grissom and Catherine had just walked out of his office when they saw Greg rush past them towards one of the sleeping rooms.

Both senior CSI's began sprinting out of fear that one of their loved ones was in danger.

As they approached the door however, they both heaved sighs of relief.

-----

Keith wasn't sure how long he'd been dying. All of a sudden two new CSI's joined him. These two he recognised, he'd worked with them on several cases before.

Sara had been on the verge of tears thinking that any of them could be next when she heard footsteps outside the door and saw Catherine and Grissom rush in.

At that moment, Grissom couldn't have cared less about following rules, ethics or any other kind of guidelines. He was just happy Sara was alright and demonstrated it by taking her hand in his as he stood next to her.

Now, as the pain had moved from his lower torso to his chest, Keith knew what he was experiencing. He hoped this would make it quicker. After suffering the past minutes as he had, he had no doubt why people preferred to die in their sleep. As the heart attack clouded his senses, he begged for it to end. He'd never been one to believe in god, or any other form of divinity, but at that moment, knowing there was nothing in this world that could save him, begging a stronger power for death was all he could think of.

In his very last moments, he realized what 'seeing your life flash before your eyes' meant. He saw his wife beaming at him on their wedding day, he saw his son Dillon's first smile, his daughter Kate's first steps. This at least seemed to ease the pain as his mind trailed off into oblivion and all the pain stopped.

All six CSI's stood there watching as this man died and they could do nothing. Once he'd grown still, and Catherine had announced his heart had stopped beating, Doc Robbins pronounced him dead and tears started streaming out of Sara's eyes. Grissom felt her shake and pulled her towards him. No one seemed to notice Sara and Grissom as he held her close to him, whispering to her that everything would be alright.

Not more then five minutes later, three men dressed in sterile suites ran into the room.

"You're late…" Nick said anger and irritation obvious in his tone. He walked past them hitting one of them on the shoulder purposefully.

"We're so sorry." Said the tallest one as he stepped towards the body.

Sara pulled away from Grissom "No you're not! You took a full 15 minutes to get here! That could have been any of us!"

The shortest man was the next to speak "We followed protocol."

Sara was furious now, angry tears streaming from her eyes as her fists closed at her sides "SCREW PROTOCOL!"

Grissom saw how close she was to hitting one of them and determined it was time to step in.

Grabbing her arms before she could hurt someone, he pulled her away from the doctors as they all moved towards Keith's body to wrap him in a sheet and carry him to the morgue.

"They let him die, Griss." She was still crying but her tone was calmer "They could have tried; they could have been here earlier."

Again, Grissom held her close to him and felt her cry into his shoulder.

"That could have been any of us, Grissom. It could have been me!" She held onto his back as firmly as she could.

Grissom knew that this was another situation were all Sara needed was for him to let his heart do the talking, "I'll never let that happen, Sara. I'll always be there for you." It seemed that was all she needed to hear, in a matter of seconds the crying slowed and by the time the body and been carried away, it had stopped altogether.

-----

The next day was spent in a considerably different mood to the others. Not one of them was ready to talk about what had happened to Keith. Brass had taken it upon himself to inform the family, and the wife's sobs over the phone were enough to take him into total hibernation.

They hadn't heard from the lab in days and had no idea what was being done to stop them ending up like Keith.

Though everyone started to suspect of Catherine and Warrick's relationship, no one seemed to notice the hours Sara spent in Grissom's room.

Most of the time they just sat on the couch in each other's arms, Grissom whispering that everything was going to be alright into Sara's ear between kisses. They both felt like that was where they belonged and that no tragedy could tare them apart now.

-----

It was on the sixth day of incarceration that good news came.

It had started when everyone had rushed into the lab where Greg was yelling. To their relief, they found they weren't yells of anger or pain, they were apparently cheers.

As he explained what he'd found, he saw smiles of relief cross his co-worker's faces and couldn't help feeling proud of himself.

It hadn't been easy with the equipment he had, but he'd managed to break down the virus' DNA and find that it wasn't a single virus. Aside from the obvious flu characteristics gained during mutation, the virus also had strands of DNA matching various diseases; mainly Meningitis.

Once he'd found that out it had taken him only five minutes on the phone to explain his findings to a Dr. Walker who, after having profusely thanked the young CSI, had hung up and ordered her fellow scientists to work on the new information.

"So, basically…" Greg said smiling broadly as Warrick patted him on the back, "I may just have cracked this case…"

"You just may, Greggo" replied Sara as Grissom approached the back of her chair holding a piece of paper.

Smiling at Sara as he leaned on her chair, Grissom spoke "Well, more good news, people." He handed the peace of paper to Catherine and ensued, "For once, Ecklie did his job. Dr. Plummer is being tried in three days for murder in the first degree and destruction of government property."

They all cheered and decided this deserved a celebration, even if Brass did disapprove. Grissom rushed to his office and returned with the wine bottle he'd been entrusted of.

They all drank to the fact that they were going to get out alive, though secretly, each was drinking to a different thing. Greg was drinking to the rest of his life, Nick to the girl he was going to be able to take the next step with, Warrick to Catherine, Catherine to Warrick, Grissom to Sara and Sara to Grissom.

The rest of their day was spent in the same relaxed manner as the previous ones had been, and though no one dared say it, they were all itching to get back to work.

-----

Finally, on day 7, a lively young woman in a sterile suite who introduced herself as Dr. Walker, came to tell them that they'd found a cure. According to her, Greg's information had been the missing piece of the puzzle, and after they were administered with the blue mixture she was carrying in 9 syringes they'd only have to stay an extra day as a safety measures and then would be allowed to get back to work.

One by one, they got injected and with each stab of the syringe, they felt a huge load being lifted from their chests. After all, there was nothing more upsetting then having there family in danger, and for all intents and purposes, Grissom, Sara, Catherine, Warrick, Greg and Nick were a family.

-----

On the day of their release, each CSI agreed to take that particular day off to stay at home and relax.

Avoiding the media circle that had formed outside the lab as they were fed information by the sheriff, they made their way to their cars.

Greg got on his new motorcycle and was the first to drive off, Nick got in his car and with a smile and a wave was the next one to leave.

Once Doc Robbins and Mike had left and Brass had gone to speak to Keith's family, only the two 'secret' couples were left.

As they stood there, Catherine couldn't help smiling at Sara as Warrick put an arm around her waist and pulled her towards the car. This time, she didn't mind leaving Lindsey with the neighbour for an extra night, neither did Warrick.

Soon, only Grissom and Sara were left, watching as the car drove off.

"Well…" Said Grissom opening the door to the car so Sara could get in "…hop in, I'll drive you home."

Sara smiled and got in as Grissom put a hand on her back to help her up.

-----

Once outside her apartment, Sara hesitated to get out of the car. She had something to ask him and wasn't quite sure how to.

"Grissom…" She said as he turned his spectacular blue eyes towards her, "Do you…I mean, do you want to come in?"

He grinned at her in response and soon they were both walking up the steps to her apartment.

-----

Three months after the quarantine, nothing much had changed at the lab. However, in the CSI's lives, much was different.

The young woman who'd injected them with the cure was so impressed with Greg's work, that she'd taken up his offer to go to dinner and now they were practically inseparable.

Two days after leaving, Warrick had told Tina that he just couldn't continue lying to her, and surprisingly, she'd taken it pretty well. He was now living at Catherine's where Lindsey had accepted him as a big brother, one who kissed her mother whenever he could, but a brother none the less.

Nick was now engaged to his girlfriend, Lauren and the wedding was going to be held in two weeks since Lauren would be giving birth to Nick's first child in 5 months.

A month into their long awaited relationship –which was still a secret to everyone but Catherine- Grissom had asked Sara to leave her tiny apartment and to move into his town house. Surprisingly, she had accepted and they were now enjoying a happy life together.

There was just the one thing that was unsettling Sara. One thing that she was going to tell him about that night over dinner, hopefully, he'd take it well. Then again, he had very little say in the matter.


End file.
